APPENDIX. 



41 



bedroom on the journey, for the long handle to the slide must 

 be depressed, so pushing down the grating, before the cage 

 can be put in its exhibition box. A slide in the roof of the 

 food-store can be withdrawn to feed the mouse, without any 

 possibility of its escape, as the slide is under the wires. Alto- 

 gether, the cage is a most ingenious production, and as it is 

 of fair size, a mouse can be kept in it altogether if desired. 

 It is nicely painted inside ; and as the whole wire front opens 

 on the spring being released, can be easily kept clean. The 

 partition is also removable. 



I think there can be little doubt that this cage will be 

 chosen by the Mouse Club, as it leaves nothing whatever to 

 be desired. It can be obtained from Mr. Wild, 23, Com- 

 mercial Road, Oxford, and costs only 2s. 6d. Exhibition 

 travelling boxes to hold three of these cages are also made 

 by him, and cost 2s. 



If it is desired to handle young or wild mice, previous 

 handling of a tame buck will be a great help. Tbe frightened 

 mice will quiet down at once when they recognise the odour 

 — no doubt, to them, very pleasing — of their own species 

 about the hands of their owner. The opposite precaution, 

 however, should be taken when overhauling the nests of 

 young for the first time, as if the mother noticed the smell 

 of a strange buck about them, she might very possibly 

 injure or even kill them. 



Four or six does may be kept with one buck, and removed to 

 separate cages as their litters are expected, a fresh doe being 

 substituted for each as she is taken away. Evenly-marked 

 mice should be kept together, and not bred with selfs ; but 

 it is not always necessary or desirable to interbreed only selfs 

 of one colour. Blacks and chocolates may be bred together 

 to the probable improvement of both colours. It is often 

 said that the young follow the one parent in colour and the 

 other in shape; but I have not myself observed such to be 

 the case with mice, the litters usually being well assorted in 

 colour, where the parents are distinct. 



SPINY MICE. 



These curious little animals, though familiar to the zoologist, 

 are practically unknown to the fancier, and have, I believe, 

 seldom, if ever, been seen outside a zoological collection up 

 to tbe present. They seem eminently fitted for pets, and 

 are free from one very great disadvantage attending Mus 

 musculus (the ordinary mouse) — they have no distinctive 

 odour whatever. Of their appearance the illustration (half 

 life size), which represents Hunter's Spiny Mouse {Acomys 

 Munteri), will give an idea, but it cannot convey tbe beauty 



